Education

‘This is not new’: Unsettled by threats, HBCUs reflect on a long history of racist intimidation

From The Chronicle of Higher Education: “Fisk University was preparing to host a civil-rights address in its gymnasium when police and fire officials suddenly ordered everyone to evacuate. Someone had called in a bomb threat, and the crowd of nearly 4,000 was left waiting. It took about 45 minutes to clear the building, and no bomb was found. When he finally took the stage, Martin Luther King Jr. told the audience not to lose hope, The Nashville Banner reported on April 21, 1960. ‘No lie can live forever. Let us not despair. The universe is with us,’ he said. … During the civil-rights era, HBCUs served as ‘seed beds for activism’ and agency among Black people, said Jelani M. Favors, a historian and professor at North Carolina A&T State University.”

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